Ex-UFC fighter Cain Velasquez pleads no contest to capturing at man charged with molesting his son

SAN JOSE — Cain Velasquez, the previous UFC champion dealing with an tried homicide trial for a violent 2022 automobile chase by which he repeatedly shot at a person accused of molesting Velasquez’s son however wounded the person’s stepfather as an alternative, pleaded no contest Friday to his costs in change for potential sentencing leniency.

Velasquez, 42, entered the plea in a San Jose courtroom in entrance of Judge Arthur Bocanegra. He was formally set to start trial Sept. 9 and risked a possible sentence of life in jail had he gone to trial and been convicted by a jury of the fees of tried homicide and 9 gun assault crimes.

Instead, Velasquez can be convicted however not topic to a compulsory life sentence after premeditation allegations had been dropped in accordance with a plea settlement with the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.

A sentencing listening to has been set for Oct. 18, although the precise sentencing will not be anticipated till later within the yr. Bocanegra has large discretion on Velasquez’s sentence, and within the coming months the county probation division will produce a sentencing suggestion report weighing the severity of his crime together with potential mitigating components, together with his lack of prison historical past and the sexual abuse case by which his son is a reported sufferer.

Velasquez and lawyer Renee Hessling declined remark after Friday’s court docket listening to. Velasquez stays out of custody along with his current bail, dwelling detention and supervised monitoring situations in place.

In an announcement Friday, District Attorney Jeff Rosen characterised the crime as a vigilante capturing.

“This defendant determined to turn into judge, jury and executioner. His actions endangered harmless bystanders, together with younger youngsters and their mother and father, who might have been injured or killed as he shot at his supposed sufferer,” Rosen mentioned.

Paul Bender, the person who was wounded within the capturing, mentioned after the listening to that he was “disenchanted in our court docket system.”

“In a case like right this moment when he alters his plea to responsible to 10 violent felonies involving a gun, and our system permits him to go free?” Bender mentioned. “How in God’s title is that doable? I’m searching for somebody to clarify that to me.”

Paul and Patty Bender, who was within the car on the time of the capturing however was not injured, had been each within the court docket gallery for Velasquez’s plea Friday.

“We weren’t joyful there was a plea,” Patty Bender mentioned Friday. “The dropping of the premeditation was disappointing. I used to be wanting ahead to trial.”

Velasquez’s arrest and subsequent costs had been polarizing within the Bay Area and past due to his worldwide fame from a embellished mixed-martial arts profession combating out of San Jose and sympathy for the daddy of a then-4-year-old boy who reported being molested by the grownup son of his daycare supplier.

The crimes additionally contradicted the general public consensus about Velasquez’s demeanor, who regardless of profitable two UFC heavyweight titles was generally called serene and soft-spoken outdoors the octagon as a household man and coach on the American Kickboxing Academy in South San Jose, the varsity he represented throughout his skilled ascent.

In the wake of his plea, Velasquez continued to garner help from the mixed-martial arts neighborhood. Josh Thomson, a former Strikeforce light-weight world champion who educated with Velasquez at AKA for 15 years, mentioned he believes Velasquez has been punished sufficient by means of his preliminary 9 months in jail and ensuing home arrest.

“This must be accomplished and over,” Thomson mentioned. “When we begin speaking a couple of father taking actions into his personal fingers to guard his youngsters, as a result of California’s failed system hasn’t accomplished something for him, that’s precisely what occurred. I believe his time has been served.”

Throughout the case, the technical details of the case have been largely undisputed, and Velasquez’s earlier lawyer, movie star lawyer Mark Geragos, sought to refocus consideration in court docket and in public on Velasquez appearing out of rage from the concept of his son’s being sexually abused. Earlier court docket filings from the protection asserted that Velasquez suffered impulse management points and mind accidents from over a decade of prizefighting; he retired in 2019.

But Deputy District Attorney Aaron French, the lead prosecutor within the case, repeatedly argued in previous court docket hearings that the assault was premeditated provided that the chase and capturing occurred three days after Harry Goularte Jr., the person charged with molesting Velasquez’s youngster, appeared in court docket and was granted monitored launch.

On the afternoon of Feb. 28, 2022, Goularte was being pushed by Bender, his stepfather, and was additionally accompanied by his mom, Patty Bender, after they all drove from Morgan Hill towards San Jose so Goularte might get fitted for an ankle monitor in accordance along with his pretrial supervision by the county.

Shortly after stepping into his mother and father’ pickup truck in Morgan Hill, authorities say Velasquez first shot at Goularte, touching off an 11-mile high-speed automobile chase by means of Morgan Hill that ended close to Monterey Road and Bailey Avenue on the southern reaches of San Jose.